Technical A Kid's First Project: 1957 Fairlane 500 Town Victoria.

I love a road trip in an old car...have fun!

 

Duct tape, spray lube, spray cleaner and some towels or rags, some tie up wire. Pen and paper to leave a note if you have to hike.

 

if it makes that trip--better head to lloyd's in ky.! good luck !

 

heres hoping it is fun! worst case I have cash to tow it back to my grandparents.

the goal is to make it to Lloydfest next Friday through Sunday. I already asked for Monday off because Murphy's law. gf didn't want to camp out so every night we're driving to a hotel in mt sterling... hoping she checked that they rent to people under 21.

the pen and paper is a good idea, never thought about that. I'm going to load my toolbox up with as much as I can fit my thrifted 1970s first aid box will have my other bits I'll need. I didn't get another carb kit but i just rebuilt it so it shouldn't give me issues, worst case i have my spare gaskets and power valve. car runs rich atm but hopefully i can tune it a touch leaner. was dealing with intake pops before, this baseplate has already had the check valve installed last i remembered so I'm not too worried.

 

Maybe make a separate thread on the days and route you plan to take. Maybe some members will be near where you’re traveling and can assist if you have issues.

 

got the choke in and tuned up, it runs like a dream, the needles had to be turned in quite a bit, it still runs a touch rich but within the acceptable range. its no longer sooting, car has plenty of power and runs clear out to 4800 without the first sign of valve float!
the oil leak is mostly resolved, a lot of the leak was due to the fact i apparently overfilled it at some point, and thats why it was leaking so much.

carb had a small fuel leak, the 11/16 bowl flare fitting just needed tightened up a touch to resolve that.

got the regulator installed and wired up, added a couple extra wires, one ground one positive to make absolutely certain its voltage sensing is accurate aswell as another radio cap.

zero alternator noise in the radio, happy how that turned out, can listen to my jams without hearing EEEEEE noises.
stopped by a buddies house and did a burnout, for the first time ever TWO TIRE FIRE, its open diff, i dont know how it left two, but it did and i am very proud of that level of burnout lol
you can bet his neighbors are going to LOOOOVE that.

figured out i needed to adjust the gas pedal a bit longer so the pedal sits where its supposed to, so now its not going to fall off, i can go ahead and install my foot pedal!
my dad has had this thing for a long time, its a jc whitney one from about the early 60s and i think itd fit right in with the rest of the car

 

Rite of passage. I'd guess there are a couple members that haven't had one of those on at least one car, but I'll freely admit I had one at 20 and at 50 'til now.

 

i took the regulator off earlier to clean up some wiring, and dropped it! luckily i saved it from the nice soft grass and smashed it into the wall with my hand.

things rattle inside... whoops.

 

threw the one for my dads 79 in. it works! even the generator light works again, must have been something wrong with it

 

magnet on a stick

 

i figured that out pretty quick. helps a lot. still pretty accessible around the front end.

 

got the car mostly sorted around, time for the week of trial by fire.

replaced this ground strap, noticed it was fraying apart to nothingness, replaced just in case.
it took me FOUR YEARS but a piece of carpet finally turned up. this proves the car did infact have black carpet factory. if/when this car gets carpet i know to get black carpet.
and finally, drove it to my girlfriends house. car drives very smooth for the most part, going around turns quick is uh... sketchy, youre over and understeering simultaneously. idk how those shine runners did it back in the day, and im on RADIALS.

car leaks oil still, hopefully it stops, i made a new gasket for it and everything. need to see if i can find a 3 1/8 od and 2 11/16 id rubber gasket because the cork isnt working.

 

When it stops leaking, it’s emty

 

apparently 65-66 thunderbirds use the 15s ive been searching for. theres a few of them at a junkyard near me

i could have had my 15 inch wheels months ago! guess im getting those when i get back from kentucky. 25 a piece at this yard.

 

I don't know the exact wheel you are looking for (Ford 15" seems common) but if there is a specific thing like hubcap retention, make sure you know what to look for. A 65 in a yard might not be wearing the wheels it left the factory with!

 

its losing a quart every 40 miles or so.

this is BAAAD... im gonna need more oil.

 

Burn or leak?
Keeping it topped up is the way to keep it alive, but you know that!

 

its official i am hunting down a pcv valley pan. the road draft really does suck... or doesnt rather .

i think one of my baseplates is a pcv baseplate but idk if the carb body has the holes for it, worse case i change my spacer out for one with a vacuum port.

i need a 63-64 f100 valley pan, should be about 150 bucks or less
a road draft delete plate, national parts depot has one for 10 bucks
a carb spacer with ports, should be 30 bucks or less.
and the hoses/valve shouldnt be expensive.

hopefully that stops the oil loss. but for this trip? im gonna have to spend a hundred bucks on motor oil lol.

car doesnt seem to burn much of any oil. exhaust isnt smokey at all with the new seals.

its all going out my road draft for some reason.

i do have a small rear main leak but its nothing notable.

 

That much blowby is concerning. Even if you set up a PCV, it's going to loose oil, AND it will coat the intake, valves, mess with combustion and probably start preigniting. You can try some snake-oil rebuild-in-a-can, but you are going to have to address it pretty soon.

In this case, you might even plumb in a 'catch can' between the valve and the intake to capture some of the oil.

Enjoy the trip, meet the HAMBers and see if anyone has a good short block or long block that would bolt in.

 

i was planning on an oil separator. it has good oil pressure is whats weird, its not acting like a worn out engine... wonder if i can get away with rings, seals, and a ball hone, no new bearings, balancing, etc

 

Rings and cylinders are the most likely. Oil pressure is not really related. That's bearings, gallerys, rockers and pump.
Once you get back and tear into it (or swap it) you will need to measure taper in the bores. that will tell you how much repair is required. 5 to 7 thousandths can get hone and rings, gaskets. Over 10 is diminishing returns. Had one where it had 15-20 and the customer couldn't spring for the overbore and pistons. They were warned but the shop went ahead and did the work. I declined to be the one on that job. It wasn't great.

 

I had an Edsel several years ago, with a 292 that would not run because it had no compression. I took it apart, and fixed it...gave it a light hone, installed new rings, new cam bearings, timing chain, all seals and gaskets, and lapped the valves. It ran great and didn't burn oil when I was done. I spent about $200 on parts.

But it was a relatively low mileage engine, the bores were not worn too badly, and the heads had been redone at some point in the past.

In general, any engine that's burning oil because of worn rings will definitely be helped by honing and new rings. If the bearings are still OK (not knocking, or less than about 0.002" wear) then you can get away without replacing them. I've done this to several engines in the past 10 years, and they all get better...not perfect, but they'll go from a quart every 50-100 miles to a quart every 500 or so.

Just do NOT let it run out of oil so that it loses pressure! then the bearings will go out, and you'll be in big trouble.

 

True, that was a repair method back in the day. Valve job at 60K, re-ring at 100k. I don't want to say every engine repair that goes past valve cover gaskets requires a full rebuild.
If the rings are worn and collapsed, a hone and ring job will work wonders. If the cylinders are worn past the guidelines, the new rings will be working hard and fail quicker. The old CVCC engines had very light tension rings that would give up at 60K, leaving the bores in mint condition. Knew a couple guys that worked at the dealer who would re-ring one of them in a day, getting book time of 16 hours.

 

this engine is overdue for a valve job, theres a few thousandths play in a few of the valves. im thinking i should do an at home overhaul minus letting the machine shop set guides and seats.

the pistons, rods, etc should all be fine especially because it has good oil pressure, even the top end oils really good.

the oil pressure gauge slowly drops when its time to add oil, itll go from about 50-60 psi at 55 to 20-30, then i add a quart or two and its back up to 55-60

 

also, this engine has a hair under 100k, i think itll give me the chance to clean it up nicely... remove the half inch or more of sludge in some areas.

 

you're asking for trouble, letting it get so low that the pressure drops.

Add oil before that happens.

 

I have no experience with any of these places!
https://unitedengine.com/product/ford-390-cid-long-block-engine-1963-76/
2200 for a long block. I don't know why they say 58-65 on the page but 63-up on the link.
Columbus machine shop. http://www.precision-engine.com/
They should be able to do freshening on your valve guides and more. You will have to call for quotes, but expect them to want to hot tank, crack check and inspect for a solid quote, like any shop.
I checked NAPA and o'reilly's but they don't carry replacement FE engines. ATK is the most common supplier, but they don't have a listing for FEs either.
You can check into short blocks and getting your heads rebuilt, just to compare pricing.
As you can see, this is an expensive proposition. Add in fluids, hoses, belts, accessories and misc. Whatever has not already been done and falls under the "while you are in there" deal.
So yes, it could take a backyard freshening for a lot less. It could also be where IF you can find a good used replacement, it will be cheaper. There are risks there, of course.

 

My dad said an old used car dealer trick was to put a little Bon Ami powered cleanser in the oil to scuff up the cylinder walls. Don't know that I would try it before your Lloyd Fest Road trip though. @squirrel ever heard of that?
He would have been 110 last month, he had a lot of knowledge and also accumulated a lot of "temporary" solutions

 

I would not put cleanser in an engine...

 

It would go down the carb while running, trying to reseat the rings and bores, NOT the oil!
I'd think it's 100K plus sitting for years is past the point of any external solution, but would go with a rebuild-in-a-can liquid over abrasives.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr8jIwVyIFE